Having received your
nice letter, I'll have to admit that I am deeply embarrassed
that I hadn't written you sooner. I thought surely some
of the fellows that have returned to the States would
have seen you by now and would have given you the complete
terrible story of one most unfortunate experience. The
complete and true story can come only from one of us
'lucky ones" that survived. Knowing that you as
well as the other boys parents want the true details
of all of it, I'll take this time to give them to you
as well as I can. This is hard to write and very unpleasant
to read. I'll be frank as that is the best way to say
what has to be said.
Our experience was terrible,
dreadful, horrible and one that we try to think very
little about. That part we all hope will he forgotten
someday, but the memory of these fine fellow we lost,
and how nice all were, will never be forgotten.
Not knowing how much
of the story you already know I'll start at the beginning
and tell it all. We were on our ninth bombing mission
on the 29th of May 1945 against Yokohama, Japan. Over
the target we were hit and hit hard, by enemy flak.
The plane was pretty well full of holes and two engines
on the right wing were knocked out, but luckly only
one man was injured due to the flak. Sgt. Schutzman,
our radio operator received a piece of flak through
his foot. He was very well taken care of arid was in
high spirits, all through our experience. Because we
had two engines out, we were unable to maintain altitude
and knew at once we had to ditch.
(Ditching is what we call landing in the water.) The
spirit of the crew was always fine, no one seeming scared
or loosing his head. We talked and joked until we hit
the water.
Under the circumstances,
we did a fine job of ditching the plane. Due to the
large waves and the roughness of the sea, our plane
broke into four parts when we hit. Now each man has
his own experience during the ditching, mine of little
importance to you, so I'll try and tell you exactly
what happened to Larry. He, with three others, was braced
in his respective ditching position - Their positions
were near the tail end of the plane.
When we hit, a large
swell caught the tail of the plane and snapped it off
immediately. Those four men really took a terrible shock
from which only one survived. The one man saved from
the tail of the plane swam a couple hundred yards with
one arm as he had a broken collar bone. One man went
down immediately, no one seeing him or knowing how badly
he was hurt.
Larry and Sgt. Markowitz
came out of the wreckage but looked as if they were
semi-conscious and pretty badly injured. We remember
seeing Larry in the water and apparently trying to hold
onto to the wreckage of the plane. As the
wreckage of the plane sank, Larry went down with it.
No one can say how badly he was injured, but he must
have been. Upon hitting the water the front of the plane
continued on about one hundred yards. The men in front
were as busy as we could be getting the life rafts out
and inflated. As soon as we could we all started paddling
toward the tail section, which at that time was just
sinking. On the way we picked up Lt. Hayenga. When we
got to where the tail section was, no one else could
be found. We searched until dark all over the place
and two planes above us were doing their best trying
to find more men still afloat. Yes Larry undoubtedly
was injured upon ditching and not being completely conscious
was unable to swim or float. Certainly all help that
was possible at the time was given him.
Two others drowned that
were in the tail section and one from the front of the
plane.
I know this is very unpleasant
to read but its how it happened and I thought you would
like to know the exact details.
The story goes on to
say that the ones of us that got into the rafts were
just beginning our trouble. With one man with a broken
collar bone and one with a flak hole through his foot
we were in a bad spot to survive during the night. Waves,
and big ones too, kept turning us over all during the
night, but by some miracle of God we won the battle
and near sundown the next day we were picked up by a
submarine.
I intend when I return
to the States to visit each family and tell the story
more completely and answer each question they have.
This is close to being the complete story but It know
all will have some questions to be asked. But Mr. &
Mrs. Toeppe you asked in your letter if there is any
hope. As much as I hate to say it there is none.
Larry as well as all the
boys on the crew were fine men. We had a job to do when
we carne over. Some had to go down dying to complete
this job. The job is over now and I know if Larry and
the thousands of others where alive today they would
be happy to know that there lives had much to do to
help bring about this World Peace once again. It's terrible
for the families back hone and things like this hurt
us deeply out here. We didn't go into all this blind
folded. We knew the stakes and were ready to give our
lives to accomplish what we did. I know Larry felt this
way too.
We had the best crew in
the Group and it was great shock to everyone when we
didn't return. But the ones of us that returned stayed
on helping to finish the jobs we knew the boys that
we lost would want us to and since then we personally
had more to fight for.
All the other fellows
are now back home. I hope to be back by Summer. My
job now is flying cargo instead of bombs to Japan. I
see Yokohama on every trip and can't help to think of
our mission there. We did a fine job that day and you
know the city was completely destroyed in one raid.
That raid is going down in history on the best single
raid in this war.
Under the circumstances
I'm sorry that I was on it, but since I was I'll have
to admit that I am proud of what we did to Yokohama
that day.
It was
a pleasure to receive your letter and if there is any
further information or help I can give you feel free to
write me. I'll also be glad to hear from you. With my
deepest regrets for everything.
